2021 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 6th – Sunday, July 11th
- Foro Italico, Rome, Italy
- Heats at 9:30am local (3:30am EST)/Finals at 6pm local (Noon EST)
- LCM (50m)
- Start Lists/Results
Budding Romanian star David Popovici was undoubtedly the story of the opening day at the 2021 European Junior Championships in Rome, as the 16-year-old dropped an incredible time of 47.56 in the men’s 100 freestyle.
Popovici’s swim, done on the lead-off leg of the Romanian men’s 4×100 free relay, broke the existing world junior record of 47.57, set by Russian Andrei Minakov last year. When Minakov broke the record, he erased the 47.58 mark set by Australian Kyle Chalmers when he won the 2016 Olympic gold medal at 18 years of age.
Popovici’s swim also lowered his own Romanian Record of 48.08 set at the European Championships in May.
Popovici, who will turn 17 in September, is now firmly in contention for an Olympic medal in the 100 free at the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo. Overtaking Minakov, he now ranks fourth in the world this season.
If Popovici managed to win an Olympic medal in the men’s 100 free, he would become the youngest to do so in 89 years, and he’d also be just the 13th aged 18 and under to do it in history.
Chalmers’ win in Rio is the only 18 and under medal in the event over the last nine Olympic Games, with the two prior to that coming from German Jörg Woithe (gold) and Sweden’s Per Johansson (bronze) in 1980.
The youngest-ever medalist in the event was Japan’s Yasuji Miyazaki, who won gold in the event at the age of 15 in 1932.
18&U OLYMPIC MEDALISTS – MEN’S 100 FREESTYLE
- Alfred Hajos, 1896, 18
- Harald Julin, 1908, 18
- Pua Kealoha, 1920, 17
- Yasuji Miyazaki, 1932, 15
- Hiroshi Suzuki, 1952, 18
- Gary Chapman, 1956, 18
- Don Schollander, 1964, 18
- Mike Wenden, 1968, 18
- Mark Spitz, 1968, 18
- Jörg Woithe, 1980, 17
- Per Johansson, 1980, 17
- Kyle Chalmers, 2016, 18
Popovici continues his descent down into the elite of the event, and it’s come fast and furious despite his young age. Having entered May’s European Championships with a best time of 49.09, Popovici brought that down a full second in 48.08 in Budapest, and is now another half-second faster with the Olympics still on the horizon.
Given his continued improvement, it would not be a surprise to see the Romanian go even faster in the individual 100 freestyle at Euro Juniors, which kicks off with prelim heats on Wednesday morning.
virtually identical to chalmers splits
popovici 23.07/24.49
chalmers 23.14/24.44
Time Machine .
In 1987 Romanians had the euro jnr 50 100 200 champ – a 14 year old Livia Coparariu. She travelled to Aust in the summer with others notable Tamara Costiche .I don’t remember if Stella Polit came.
I stood next to both .Tamara was fairly short & muscular with an unfortunate bad case of acne . It could have been steroids or a lso it was before they treated it with antibiotics. She was very friendly .
Livia was extremely tall & willowy , what we classified then as an ectomorph . She did freestyle times that trip that lasted until Cate Campbell 2007 50m & the 100 till Yolanda Kukla ( 2010) . The… Read more »
I remember when Cesar Cielo broke a 50free Brazilian category record in 23.2 with 16 years old…that was 2003 and it was an AMAZING time. This kid opens a 100free in 23.0 and comes home in 24mid…Crazy to think what he will do in Paris.
2003 was a long time ago, it just feels like not.
video or it didnt happen
Here you go …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3whqJg-UA8
He’s going to fun to watch at the Big Races in Tokyo.
The semifinals of the 100 free is always prime viewing. Sprinters have to be on their ‘A’ game to get a coveted spot in the final.
It would be quite an achievement just to get to the Olympic final for a 16 year old.
I love it when my little question gets a ton of input from some heat researchers and turned into an article! This kid is going to be fire in 2 weeks!
Splits for their best performances –
Dressel 22.29 24.67
Chalmers 22.79 24.29
Kolesnikov 22.50 24.87
Miressi 22.70 24.75
Popovici 23.07 24.49
Should be a fascinating race.
If he’s out behind Dressel and Chalmers, I don’t see him fighting through an Olympic A final with those waves. It’ll be slightly different going a 47 when swimmers are right next to you doing it as well. Best of luck to him! We will see!
At the same time, he might be able to draft off of the bigger guys around him if he can stay at their hips. If he gets caught in their wake though, I’m not sure he’d be able to come back. He’s much lankier than the guys he’s going to be racing in Tokyo
That’s certainly a possibility, Coach. It’s worth remembering that he set his previous best of 48.08 coming 6th in the European final when there would have been a lot of wash.
The bigger concern for the rest of the field is his rate of improvement. He improved every round at Europeans from 48.3 down to 48 flat. And he presumably has 3 more swims in Rome.
I tell you right now that somebody is going to regret Tokyo didn’t happen in 2020, when this kid was just a very promising, rising star.
If he stays on course, he is going to tip some older dude off the Olympic final. At the very least.
Honey a lot of people do already lol
The extra year also helped Kolesnikov, Minakov, Miressi etc. Those young swimmers benefit from the delay while many veterans are on the opposite side. And as I said, the 100 free is not a two-swimmer race. There will be more breakouts like this at the Olympics.
It’s a really good point – the extra year. The shelf life of a swimmer is short – very few manage 2 ‘normal’ cycles successfully.
In the predictions for events I think there’s a strong tendency towards favouring 2019 results which I don’t think are at all reliable this time round. We will see …
If the favorites werent looking sharp this year, I might agree. But they are.
Idk if Kyle is 100% sharp. He’s coming back from a shoulder injury and his time at trials is slightly slower than what he did at 2019 trials.
He now ranks 5th in the world, behind Kolesnikov, miressi and popovici. I don’t think we can say for sure that he will drop more time at the Olympics than all of these three.
There would have been a changing of the guard in 2021. After all Dressel was 2017 .